Read about my adventure in building replica droids from the Star Wars Saga.

Monday, April 18, 2011

Center Foot & Head Motor

Yesterday I continued work on the Center Foot's caster mount. After test fitting the block I made I discovered I had miscalculated and ended up being a full one inch short. So I had to make two more half-inch blocks and glue them on.

Next I started work on the mounting bracket for the head rotation motor. Using scrap aluminum from the foot drive brackets, I made a flat piece measuring 1-1/2" x 4-1/2" x 1/8". I then drilled two holes to mount the motor, one hole for the motor shaft, one hole to mount the bracket to the body frame, and one more to connect a tension spring to. The tension spring's purpose is to pull the wheel (that will be on the Pittman motor) snug against the inside of the Rockler bearing. The other end of the spring simply connects to a hook of some sort on the body frame. To secure the motor to the bracket the motor is pre-tapped for #10-32 machine screws. To secure the bracket to the frame I'm using a 5/16" x 1" hex-bolt with 2 metal washers and three nylon washers. The nylon washers go right above and below the bracket. They help the bracket move while the bolt is tight. For the spring I used spare screws I had laying around.

Two things. One, I feel the spring I got is too long to give the amount of pull I want so I'm going to get a shorter one. Two, in the last photo you can see a half-circle drawn where the motor shaft is touching. This is where I need to remove some material so the motor can be close enough so the wheel will touch (I'm just a few fractions of an inch off). This Thursday I will take the body to the shop and carefully remove that spot. Hopefully the wheel will arrive by then so I can do a full test fit and then a powered test run.